A federal civil lawsuit targeting Washington State University for its handling of Bryan Kohberger before the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students is moving forward, with a jury trial now scheduled to begin in the fall of 2027.
The families of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle filed the lawsuit alleging that WSU failed to take meaningful action against Kohberger despite warning signs about his conduct. The four students were killed in an off-campus Moscow home on Nov. 13, 2022, when Kohberger — then a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant in WSU’s criminal justice program — broke in and stabbed them to death.
Red Flags Inside WSU’s Own Program
Court documents have revealed that concerns about Kohberger’s behavior were not unknown within WSU’s academic department before the killings. Faculty members held internal meetings to discuss whether Kohberger ought to be removed from the program. Multiple female students reported that his conduct made them uncomfortable, and at least one professor issued a stark warning: if Kohberger was allowed to remain, “We will hear he is harassing, stalking and sexually abusing” his students.
Despite those documented concerns, no action appears to have been taken to remove him. Kohberger later pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison — the maximum available under the plea agreement.
WSU has denied bearing legal responsibility for the murders. The university maintains in its court filings that staff members acted appropriately given what they knew at the time.
Judge Clears Path to Trial
U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson rejected WSU’s motion to dismiss the case, keeping it alive for a full jury proceeding. The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 13, 2027, and Judge Evanson estimates the proceedings will run approximately 20 days.
A June 29 deadline has been set for any additional parties who may be added to the lawsuit. Judge Evanson also denied a joint request from both WSU and the victims’ families to seal case documents, a ruling that keeps the record publicly accessible as proceedings move forward.
The decision to allow the case to proceed means that WSU’s internal response to Kohberger’s behavior — including what administrators knew, when they knew it, and what options they weighed — will ultimately be examined before a jury. The families of all four victims are headed to federal trial against WSU in 2027, a case that could carry significant implications for how universities across the country handle reports of threatening or predatory behavior by graduate students and teaching staff.
What Comes Next
With the trial still more than a year away, the case will move through additional pretrial proceedings in the interim. The June 29 deadline for adding new parties to the suit is the next immediate milestone, and any such additions could reshape the scope of the litigation.
WSU is expected to continue defending its internal response as legally adequate, while attorneys for the four families will seek to demonstrate that the university had sufficient information to act and chose not to. The question of institutional accountability — and what duty a university owes to the broader community when behavioral concerns about one of its own are raised internally — will be at the center of a trial that figures to draw national attention when it begins in September 2027.
For Latah County residents and University of Idaho community members, the case remains deeply personal. The murders shook Moscow and the surrounding Palouse region, and the ongoing litigation serves as a continuing reminder of the tragedy that unfolded nearly four years ago just blocks from the U of I campus.